Health Canada is making changes to the application process for those wanting to cultivate, process, or sell cannabis for medical purposes, making it harder on new applicants.
The change requires all-new applicants to have a fully built site at the time of application that meets all the requirements of the Cannabis Regulations.
Marc Storms Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Nations Cannabis said its great for those already through the process but would not want to be just starting now.
“In that way, it’s great for us because we want less focus on people who aren’t seriously going through the process.”
A news release from Health Canada said: “70 per cent of applicants who successfully passed Health Canada’s initial paper-based review of their application over the past three years have not submitted their evidence package to demonstrate to the Department that they have a built facility that meets the regulatory requirements.”
Storms said those applicants are slowing down the process for the more serious businesses.
Nations Cannabis is a First Nations owned company that will be opening a growing facility for both medicinal and recreational marijuana in the next few months.
Although Nations Cannabis is near the finish line to set up shop, Storms said their experience would have been harder if they would have needed all their investments in place first.
“Who is going to put up the money for a building if you have to wait until the very end to find out (if you are approved). I think that will be the biggest challenge, especially for the First Nations because First Nations are not sitting on a tone of cash with a lot of people willing to put money in.”